Re: Sony Undecided on PS3 Hard Disk Drive
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=9265
PlayStation 3 to launch without bundled hard disk?
Tom Bramwell 09:52 02/06/2005
SCE CTO Chatani's comments raise price issue again
Sony Computer Entertainment's chief technology officer Masayuki Chatani has
cast doubt on the company's plans to include a hard disk unit in the
PlayStation 3's launch package next spring.
Speaking in the pages of Japanese magazine Famitsu, Chatani said that a
strategy had "yet to be decided", but added that he felt people would want
to upgrade to higher capacity drives - the implication being that Sony would
shy away from making the hard disk unit an obligatory part of the
PlayStation 3 launch package.
Sony has previously identified a detachable 2.5" (laptop size) hard disk
drive as an optional storage peripheral, and it is believed this will slot
inside a small rectangular port located on the underside of the unit.
However the company has never said that a hard disk would be bundled with
the unit at launch, and Chatani's comments this month seem to suggest it's
erring toward not including one - and perhaps offering the peripheral
optionally in the same way it currently sells Memory Card units separately
from PlayStation 2.
Chatani also said that he expected people to unplug their hard disks and
move them between PS3 units, implying a similar functionality to that of
Xbox 360, whose detachable hard disk units appear designed to be portable
rather than optional.
The biggest question now, of course, will be what impact such a decision
would have on the PlayStation 3's price tag, which is already expected to be
higher than that of its rival Xbox 360, which launches this winter.
Microsoft's J Allard recently said the Xbox 360 would cost in the region of
US$300.
Sony declined to clarify Chatani's comments prior to publication.
Fnews-brouse 1.9(20180406) -- by Mizuno, MWE <mwe@ccsf.jp>
GnuPG Key ID = ECC8A735
GnuPG Key fingerprint = 9BE6 B9E9 55A5 A499 CD51 946E 9BDC 7870 ECC8 A735